“I went to visit him on the morning of that day, and again after dinner, at that little house on the Quai du Louvre to which he and his wife had retired. But he had given orders that I was to be requested to defer our interview until some other time, and afterwards he sent to ask me to come to see him at his house in the evening. Finding him in sore distress, I endeavoured sometimes to console, sometimes to divert, him; but his grief augmented the more I spoke to him, and he answered nothing to all I said, save: ‘Signor, I am undone! Signor, I am ruined! Signor, I am miserable!’ At last, I bade him consider the character of a marshal of France, which he represented, and which did not permit of him indulging in lamentations, pardonable in his wife, but unworthy of him. And I went on to say that assuredly he had lost a very amiable daughter and one who would have been very useful to advance his fortunes, but that he had four nieces to take his daughter’s place, who might afford him as much consolation, if he brought them to live with him, and much support to his fortunes, by means of alliances with four of the great families of France, of which he would have the choice. And I said several other things which God inspired me to tell him. At length, after weeping for some time, he said to me:-- “‘Ah, Monsieur! I do truly regret my daughter, and shall regret her so long as I live. Yet am I a man who could patiently endure such an affliction; but the ruin of myself, my wife, my son,[113] and my family which I see approaching before my eyes and which, owing to the obstinacy of my wife, is inevitable, makes me lament and lose all patience. I reveal this to you as to a true friend, from whom I have all my life received assistance and friendship, and to whom, I confess, I have not rendered the like, or acted as I should and might have done. But, _basta!_ I will make amends, please God! Know, Monsieur, that ever since I mingled with the world I have learned to know it, and to see, not only the elevation of fortunes but their decline and fall; and that a man attains to a certain point of felicity, after which he descends or falls headlong, according to the height which he has reached. If you did not know the meanness of my origin, I should endeavour to disguise it from you; but you saw me in Florence, debauched, dissolute; sometimes in prison, sometimes banished, and always plunged in a disorderly and evil course of life. I was born a gentleman and of good parentage; but when I came to France, I had not a sou and owed 8,000 crowns. My marriage and the favour of the Queen gave me great influence during the lifetime of the late King, and brought me much wealth, advancement, charges and honours during the regency of the Queen;